A couple of late-in-the year Ministry of Education grants will give the Burnaby school district a few extra chances to get students fired up about trades and technology education and careers before the end of the year.
The district is using a $25,000 “Shoulder Tappers” grant announced this spring and a $5,000 Access to Skills Training grant to bus groups of high school students to an open house at BCIT, different job sites in the Lower Mainland and the district’s own trades and tech programs.
In the younger grades, the money will be used to get Grade 8 and 9 students plugged into the “maker movement” a hands-on, do-it-yourself approach that can encompass anything from knitting to robotics.
The district plans to invite “makers” into classrooms, who will lead students through hands-on sessions from problem solving to building.
Grant money will be used for honorariums for makers and for substitute teachers, so classroom teachers can learn more about the approach at workshops.
The district hopes to expand the program to younger grades in the future.
“The maker thing at the elementary level is really where we can get a grip, get some traction so that students, as they move forward, understand what it is actually to make and build stuff and how the curriculum that they’re studying in math and science and arts and all subjects interrelates,” district program consultant Paul Arthur told the NOW.
Besides getting kids excited about trades and technology, the initiatives are designed to support B.C.’s new kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum, with its emphasis on problem-solving and creative thinking skills in mathematics, sciences, and applied design, skills and technology.
The one-time grants won’t cover everything the district would like to do, but officials are hopeful the province will put more money into such initiatives next year.
“It gets eaten up pretty fast, and we’d maybe like to do some more activities,” director of instruction Garth Errico said, “but this is a start that we can do to have a general awareness of what’s happening.”
